Gaming | Vietnam reverses decision to lift ban on local gambling

Vietnam’s Ministry of Finance has banned locals from entering Vietnam’s casinos, even though the country’s decision-making Politburo approved lifting the ban several years ago for individuals who meet certain outlined criteria.
According to the Ministry of Finance, only foreigners and Vietnamese individuals with foreign passports may be permitted to gamble in the casinos.
The decision will do little to attract international casino developers, who have long eyed the lucrative Southeast Asian market and have plenty of choice over the destination country for their investment.
Analysts say that reversing the decision to lift the ban will reassure those investors who have pulled out of casino projects recently, that they have made the right decision.
“We are continuing to study and gauge the social impacts of letting Vietnamese punters into casinos,” a senior official at the Finance Ministry was quoted by Thanh Nien newspaper as saying on Monday. “We want to report to the higher-
ups about the ramifications [that] this could have, such as organized crime, gambling addictions, money laundering and other illicit activities.”
Currently, Vietnamese punters head across borders to Macau, Hong Kong, or Cambodia to gamble, which some observers say results in capital outflow.
Augustine Ha Ton Vinh, an academic who focuses on the country’s gaming sector, claims that Vietnam loses as much as USD800 million (almost MOP6.4 billion) each year in tax revenue from Vietnamese gamblers who cross into Cambodia alone.
However, with the estimated USD300 million (MOP2.4 billion) in annual gaming revenue that Vietnam’s eight licensed casinos currently generate, opening the floor to local players bears the risk of fueling illegal activity such as organized crime and money laundering.
Supporters of the ban say that they want to avoid this type of illegal activity which neighboring Cambodia has grappled with for decades.
They also claim that developers’ promises of employment and infrastructure improvements usually fall short of expectations, and that these sizeable projects draw funding away from other, more essential areas, such as development of roads, and electricity, water and sewerage systems. DB